This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Applications No.2002-049915 filed Feb. 26, 2002 and No.2003-032693 filed Feb. 10, 2003, in the Japanese Patent Office, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data communication apparatuses, central managing apparatuses, testing methods, remote managing systems and computer-readable storage media, and more particularly to a data communication apparatus, a central managing apparatus, a testing method, a remote managing system and a computer-readable storage medium, which manage managed apparatuses such as an electronic apparatus.
The managed apparatuses to which the present invention is applied, include electronic apparatuses which have a communicating function and are connectable to a network or a communication line, such image processing apparatuses, electrical home appliances, automatic vending machines, medical equipments, power supply apparatuses, air conditioning systems, measuring systems, and computers. The image processing apparatuses include printers, facsimile machines, copying machines, scanners, and digital composite machines having composite functions. In addition, the measuring systems include systems for measuring supply of gas, electricity, water and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A generally known remote managing system for image forming apparatuses manage a plurality of image forming apparatuses, such as copying machines, which are set up at a plurality of arbitrary users on a precondition that the image forming apparatuses will be remotely diagnosed. The image forming apparatuses are connectable to a central managing apparatus which is set up at a service center, via a data communication apparatus and a communication line such as a public line. The central managing apparatus remotely manages the image forming apparatuses via the communication line and the data communication apparatus. Such a remote managing system is proposed in a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No.7-46357 and No.7-58867, for example. The “user” refers to a customer, and the “service center” refers to a point of sales or service.
In the remote managing system described above, the image forming apparatus is provided with a counter which counts a number of images formed depending on an image forming operation, and stores counter information indicative of a counted value of the counter. The data communication apparatus is provided with a connecting means for connecting the image forming apparatuses to the data communication apparatus. The connecting means periodically (for example, once a day at a predetermined time) acquires status information such as the counter information of the counter from the image forming apparatus connected thereto. In addition, the data communication apparatus periodically (for example, once a month on a predetermined accounting day at a predetermined time) calls the central managing apparatus via the communication line, and sends the status information acquired from the image forming apparatuses to the central managing apparatus.
Parameters, including a called-end telephone number which is used when the data communication apparatus calls the central managing apparatus, are set in the data communication apparatus from the central managing apparatus. In other words, the central managing apparatus downloads to the data communication apparatus the parameters including the called-end telephone number (telephone number used when the data communication apparatus calls the central managing apparatus) which is the telephone number of the central managing apparatus itself.
In the conventional remote managing system, when the central managing apparatus sends and sets (including resetting) the above described parameters to the data communication apparatus, it is necessary to add an external line selection signal (for example, call by dialing “0” first) to the called-end telephone number in the parameters which are to be sent, in cases such as when adding to the parameters line type information which indicates a type (bush-button line or dial-pulse line) of the line (line used when calling the central managing apparatus) to which the data communication apparatus is connected, and when the data communication apparatus is connected to a private branch exchange (PBX).
In such cases, it is necessary to confirm whether or not the line type information and the called-end telephone number in the parameters which are set in the data communication apparatus respectively match the line type information (indicating the type of line actually connected to the data communication apparatus) and the called-end telephone number (actual telephone number of the central managing apparatus) which are actually required. But in order to make such a confirmation, it is necessary to send a service person to the location (user) where the data communication apparatus is set up. In other words, it is necessary for the service person to call from the data communication apparatus the called-end telephone number in the parameters which are set in the data communication apparatus, and to send manual call information (a portion of status information) to the central managing apparatus which is the called end (destination), so as to confirm whether or not a normal communication is possible.
In addition, a situation may occur where the central managing apparatus can make access to the data communication apparatus but the status information which is to be periodically sent from the data communication apparatus cannot be received by the central managing apparatus. The cause of such a situation may be tat the type of the line connected to the data communication apparatus is changed or, a PBX is employed thereby requiring an external selection signal to be used. However, even if the central managing apparatus sends and resets the parameters to the data communication apparatus, it still requires a service person to be sent to the location where the data communication apparatus is set up, in order to confirm whether or not the data communication apparatus can make a normal call to the central managing apparatus. Similarly to the above described case, it is also necessary in this case for the service person to call from the data communication apparatus the called-end telephone number in the parameters which are set in the data communication apparatus, and to send the manual call information to the central managing apparatus, so as to confirm whether or not a normal communication is possible.